In the current global economy, collaboration across national, language, and cultural boundaries is increasingly common. To communicate with other members of a collaborative cross-cultural group, a lingua franca (or, common language) is typically used. The lingua franca may be the native tongue for some members of the group and a second, or even third, language for other members of the group. In this document, the phrase “second” or “third” language refers to any language learned after the native tongue (the “first” language). As a result, communication problems arise between native speakers of the lingua franca and non-native speakers of the lingua franca. This is particularly problematic under situations with psychological pressure, such as those that require the completion of a task with a time deadline in business organization or in schools. Examples of such communication problems include non-native speakers not fully understanding a native-speaker, the native-speaker becoming impatient with the non-native speakers, native speakers resorting to communicating with other native speakers and thus isolating the non-native speaker, non-native speakers resorting to communicating with other non-native speakers with similar language backgrounds and thus isolating the native speaker, along with other psychological and/or communication efficacy problems.
The insight that lead to the development of this invention was that one or more of these problems may be abated or avoided if members within the cross-cultural group are familiar with the frustrations felt by members of the group with different language backgrounds, in particular, if a native speaker of the lingua franca understood the frustrations felt by a non-native speaker of the lingua franca. However, it is difficult for a native speaker of the lingua franca to comprehend the frustrations that may be felt by a non-native speaker if the native speaker has never experienced the need to communicate in a second language that is not their native language. It is also difficult to comprehend the source of frustrations that may be felt by a native speaker of a lingua franca during communication with a non-native speaker of the lingua franca. This invention provides a method for simulating this cross-cultural dynamic between multiple participants.
One embodiment of the invention is a method for simulating a cross-cultural communication dynamic between participants. The simulation includes the steps of distributing unique subsets of the information set to the participants, assigning the participants to a first communication group that represents people for whom a lingua franca is a first language and to a second communication group that represents people for whom the lingua franca is a second language, providing a communication platform that facilitates communication between the participants of the simulation to assemble the unique subsets of the information set, and selectively disadvantaging the communication through the communication platform between a subset of participants.
In a particular example of the embodiment, a communication platform distributes unique subsets of an information set to each of the participants of the simulation and assigns the participants to either the first communication group or the second communication group. The participants are then tasked with assembling the unique subsets of information to obtain the complete original information set. The participants use the provided communication platform to attempt to communicate their unique information to the other participants of the simulation by providing communication inputs through the communication platform. The communication platform selectively manipulates the communication inputs before outputting the communication to subsets of the participants. Because of the manipulation and the increased level of interpretation difficulty of select communication to a subset of the participants of the simulation, the participants must distinguish and extract the original information set from the manipulated communication of information. A particular participant may be assigned to the task of assembling all the information provided by the other participants. Roles may also be assigned to each of the participants of the simulation to create communication relationships that are substantially similar to those seen in communication between people of different language and/or cultural backgrounds.
A stimulus may also be provided to the participants of the simulation to increase the desire to complete the assembling of the original information set. The stimulus may also be provided to increase the desire to assemble an accurate complete original information set. An example of a stimulus may be a time constraint, such as the participants of the simulation must assemble the subsets of information into a complete information set within fifteen minutes. Alternatively, or, in combination, an additional task of presenting the final assembled information set to a third party (for example, a fictional investor in the company) may be provided for stimulus. However, any other suitable stimulus may be provided by the simulation to increase the desire of the participants to complete the assembling of the complete information. In addition, participants may be allowed to provide their current emotional status throughout the course of the simulation to provide feedback for future analysis, for the other participants in the simulation, or any other suitable purpose or party. The feedback may be used in future analysis to facilitate in the understanding of the emotions felt by each participant during the simulation and how the emotions may relate to those felt by people communicating in a group with people of varied language and/or cultural backgrounds.
As described below, communication between participants of the first communication group in the lingua franca is preferably not disadvantaged and is substantially more intelligible than communication from a participant in the second communication group to a participant in the first communication group. As the simulation continues, participants in the first communication group may find it easier and more efficient to communicate directly with other participants in the first communication group and may be inclined to decrease direct communication with the participants in the second communication group. Additionally, participants in the second communication group may find it difficult to communicate with participants in the first communication group (for example, the participants in the first communication group who do not seem to understand what the participant from the second communication group is trying to communicate). As the simulation continues, the participants in the second communication group may be inclined to select the alternative communication mode (in, for example, their native language), which allows them to communicate with other participants in the second communication group with increased ease, but isolate the participants of the first communication group. The tendencies to isolate participants simulates the cross-cultural communication dynamics that include as speakers of a common language that is not the lingua franca may communicate to each other using the common language that is not the lingua franca in order to communicate faster, leaving non speakers of the common language that is not the lingua franca in confusion and/or frustration, and/or native speakers of the lingua franca may communicate in a much faster pace with each other, leaving non-native speakers of the lingua franca in confusion and/or frustration. Such communication dynamics are particularly more common in scenarios where there is a stimulus to complete the communication of information is present, for example, the stress experienced when under a time constraint.
In one variation, one or more of the participants may represent people that have proficiencies in the lingua franca and in the non-lingua franca. In this simulation scenario, this participant may be inclined to function as a translator of communication between other participants in the first communication group and the second communication group. This may allow for increased communication efficiency between participants of the simulation, but may take additional time for communication to be completed. In the variation where a time constraint is provided, the additional time use for translation may be undesirable and may, again, encourage participants to communicate directly to other participants of their communication group and isolate participants in other communication groups.
The simulation may also function to teach the participants of the simulation how to more effectively communicate with people of different language and/or cultural backgrounds. For example, comprehension of communication in a lingua franca for a person for whom the lingua franca is not the native language may be increased if the communication is delivered in a slow and/or enunciated manner. The communication platform may encourage such practice by decreasing the degree of disadvantaging of communication when slower and/or more enunciated communication is delivered (for example, slower input of textual communication, better enunciation of syllables in an audio communication, usage of simpler vocabulary, or avoidance of ambiguous vocabulary). In a second example, comprehension of communication within a group with people of any type of language background may be increased if the emotions of the members of the group are calm and patient as opposed to frustrated, impatient, or stressed. The communication platform may function to encourage calmer and more patient emotions by decreasing the degree of disadvantaging of communication when the reported emotions of the participants of the simulation are generally more positive. However, any other suitable means of teaching any other suitable methods for effective communication may be used.
The below description of the preferred embodiments of the invention is not intended to limit the invention to these preferred embodiments, but rather to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use this invention.